Wen Ting Yun's Ci Poetry

Wen TingYun is a famous poet of late Tang, and he is outstanding in his ci poetry. No good ci poetry except Wen's appears in the whole late Tang, therefore, the appearance of Wen's ci poetry in late Tang, especially in the earlier period of late Tang, likes a mountain protruding in a sudden and becomes rare literary harvest at that time.How to appreciate Wen's ci poetry properly is under heavy disputation there is no agreement on it now. On the one hand, some people praise Wen's ci exaggeratly, on the other hand, some people depreciate it to the utmost. The disputation is mainly about where is sustenance in Wen's ci poetry and how to appreciate its rich and gaudy characteristic and its jumping describing style.What they dispute is limited and narrow on scale and to some extent, some people pass improper judgement on Wen's ci poetry because of his unfavorable background.This thesis wills not discus achievement of Wen's ci in an all-round way. It will research on the big initial importance of Wen's ci by placing it under the beginning background of ci poetry.The subject is discussed in several following parts:Firstly, the ci indication of Wen's poetry--a course from poetry to ci poetry.What makes gaudy subjects increase in poems of late tang is that poets' psychogy holds back at that time. Gentle and exquisite feelings have appeared in poems , though it is better to be expressed by ci poetry.Before Wen TingYun, ci's characteristic has appeared in the works of Li He, Du Mu , Li ShangYin, but Li He's poems are too cold and remote while Do Mu's are too bright and vigorous. Although Li ShangYin's poems are affecting and have the same characteristic of ci poetry, it's pity that he doesn't write ci poetry.In Wen's poetry, especially in his Yue Fu poetry. Ci inclination has appeared in subject matters, words and mood. Wen TingYun is the first person who makes efforts to write ci poetry, which has built his founder status of "Hua Jian" literary school.Secondly, a comparison of Wen's poetry to his ci poetry--they are differentfrom each other. After that, the gap between poetry and ci poetry becomes wider andwider. The creation of Wen's ci has establish the "Hua Jian" literary style of writing erotic things, using gaudy words, and so on. Furthermore, his creation has carrried out the transition from ci's simple form of the folk to ci's complex form of scholars'. This kind of transition is connected with Wen's idea that poetry is different form ci poetry. Comparing female images created in Wen's poetry and ci poetry, we can find that Wen used different tactics among similar subject works.Thirdly, sense of separating in Wen's ci inheritance and break-throngh. There are two kinds of lyrical normal forms, namely "Hua Jian" form and "Dong Po" form from late Tang to North Song. The former describe mainly people's emotion in common, and the latter expresses unique self impression and life experience. Wen's ci has inherited the former and broken it through on this basis, which can be seen in the appearance of "seperating sense" in Wen's ci. First, about the word of "curtain" and "night" image. "Curtain", a word shows seperation, appears 12 times and "screen window", "smoke", "fence" appears twice, tree times and twice. All these show separation sense. Second, about the word of "dream" .Besides "curtain", the "dream" appears hi a large number in Wen's ci. Dream is reflection of depression in society and it will evaporate sooner or later. So it is impossible to turn separation into communication. Combining above analysis and Wen's life experience, we can draw a conclusion that ci poetry can express not only vulgar emotion but also unique life experiences, since the appearance of Wen's ci.Fourthly, deviation and transcendenceabout the importance of Wen's ci poetry. Compared with traditional poems of expressing author's aspiration, Wen's ci has deviated from policy and culture undoubtedly. First, in Wen's ci poetry,aesthestic consciousness comes back to daily life and pays more attention to enjoying rights of perso...